The growing threat to the availability and quality of race and ethnicity data has public health consequences. It narrows our visibility into who is getting sick, who is dying, and whether the people who need help are getting it. fas.org/publication/...

The Public Health Cost of Eliminating Race and Ethnicity Data

This is bigger than a singular elimination of race and ethnicity questions. It could accelerate the second wave of widespread reductions to demographic data, leaving public health officials with even ...

fas.org

Seems like a good day to say again that my PhD in biology was made possible by the GEO labor union at the Univ Michigan, @geo3550.bsky.social, bc I was a 22 yo cancer patient in 1982 in need of health insurance and GEO had won that concession with a monthly walkout supported by the Teamsters…

(NBC News) — It is now the least rewarding time to be a worker in the U.S. economy since the government started keeping track. @nbcnews.com www.nbcnews.com/business/eco...

Thinking of Local 22 this Labor Day, of the people who have already lived the future we are trying to build. aflcionc.org/news/legacy-...

In NYC, Mayor Mamdani has launched the Office of Worker Power, designed to connect workers who want to unionize with education and resources. Former US Labor Sec Julie Su is overseeing the effort & the executive director comes from the UAW. "When workers can organize, everything changes," said Su.

Mamdani Opens Office of Worker Power - The American Prospect

The new city agency intends to connect workers who want to unionize with resources and organizing contacts, and use worker stories of exploitation to inform policy.

prospect.org

I talked to @donmoyn.bsky.social about the state of the government for my newsletter "It's sort of like if you had a car and you took out 10 percent of the parts of the car. It's not that the car is going to be 10 percent slower. The car is not going to work."

The federal government is falling apart

Don Moynihan on what's been broken within the federal government.

madness.ghost.io

ScienceInsider: Outrage greets NIH pact that could funnel biodefense research funds to Pentagon By Phie Jacobs @science.org @phiejacobs.bsky.social Jay Bhattacharya NIAID ▶️ bit.ly/3SMidWm

Outrage greets NIH pact that could funnel biodefense research funds to Pentagon

NIH director defends interagency plan as “100% aligned with our public health mission”

bit.ly

Following the Heritage playbook, this move would punish single mothers, further weaken the already-tenuous childcare infrastructure in the U.S., and privilege a very specific - and gendered - vision of the family. 1/2

Trump Officials Draft Plan to Pay At-Home Parents, Using Funds for Working Ones (Gift Article)

The proposed benefit, a top policy priority for Vice President JD Vance, would apply only to married couples and tap a fund intended to provide federal child care subsidies to working parents.

nytimes.com

A Pennsylvania baby w/ a rare disorder died of measles at ~6 wks of age, the coroner now says. This is 1 of 2 measles deaths the CDC director wouldn't list on an agency website. The 2nd baby's death was defined as measles-associated. Both deaths are the 1st measles-related deaths statewide in 35 yrs

6-week-old infant died of measles, Pennsylvania county coroner says | CNN

A girl born in Pennsylvania with a rare neurological disorder called Amish lethal microcephaly died of measles at around 6 weeks of age, the Lancaster County coroner said Friday.

cnn.com

Trump's DOJ has been investigating private scientists www.nytimes.com/2026/09/05/h...

Inside the D.O.J.’s Investigation of Fauci and Other Virus Scientists (Gift Article)

As Dr. Anthony Fauci has faced public scrutiny from congressional Republicans, the D.O.J. has pursued a quieter and more expansive effort against a wider circle of researchers.

nytimes.com

A couple updates: Sanofi (Novavax) has begun shipping, and Walgreens will stop requiring prescriptions in Oregon after state officials took action. (I haven't heard back from CVS yet, but very possible they will do the same.) My article will be updated soon with this information.

New Covid Vaccines Are Available. Here’s How to Get One. (Gift Article)

The shots have been approved for people 65 and older, and for younger people with underlying conditions. Others may be able to get them off label.

nytimes.com

Maine waited years for a Lyme vaccine. RFK hobbled the panel needed for a smooth rollout themainemonitor.org/rfk-hobbled-... via @themainemonitor.org

RFK hobbled the panel needed for smooth Lyme vaccine rollout

“All the rules are out the window,” said a physician who once served on the committee that gave guidance on new vaccines. “I don’t know how this plays out.”

themainemonitor.org

"We are at risk of losing both an entire generation of researchers and the discoveries they would have made.” @reppaultonko.bsky.social and House 35 colleagues demand NSF withdraw its proposed policy on proposals and awards. tonko.house.gov/news/documen...

Tonko Demands NSF Withdraw Proposal Politicizing Science

tonko.house.gov

"The answer is ... to build a stronger and more resilient public health institution for the future. That requires safeguards so that no administration, Republican or Democratic, can replace independent public health decision-making with partisan ideology." www.statnews.com/2026/08/28/c...

We quit the CDC last year. The problems we protested remain

How disease spreads and the risks and benefits of interventions are questions for science, not for ideology.

statnews.com

ok I had to force down a tear with this one reskeeting with alt text

Ellie Mae O'Hagan@elliemaeohagan.bsky.social · 6d ago

I love the dedication in My Life on the Road by Gloria Steinhem

There are endless studies showing this and also the financial and societal benefits of universal basic income and or housing-first policies but the U.S. never goes for any of it because it would require allowing the poor to receive benefits that the rich consider “undeserved”

Jen Taub@jentaub.bsky.social · 3w ago

“A single-payer universal health care system could cover every American, save more than 100,000 lives a year, and still cost $1 trillion less than the system it would replace, according to a new preprint study led by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health.” ysph.yale.edu/news-article...

“Potentially millions of American voters may not receive their mail-in ballot this election cycle in a timely manner, or at all,” the whistleblower warned.

USPS Whistleblower Warns New Rule Could Keep Voters From Getting Ballots—What To Know

“Potentially millions of American voters may not receive their mail-in ballot this election cycle in a timely manner, or at all,” the whistleblower warned.

forbes.com

Recall that the CDC lab that tracked outbreaks like cyclospora was hollowed out to a point of being non-functional. More than 17,000 people have been sickened with cyclospora. This is deliberate, part of Project 2025. 🧪 www.politico.com/news/2026/08...

USDA cyclospora research projects shelved amid funding cuts and relocations

The shuttering of three projects is expected to hinder vital research at a time when consumers are increasingly worried about the safety of the food supply.

politico.com

Welp, there it is. The CDC is now officially manipulating data and their count of measles deaths in 2026 now stands at ZERO. My understanding of reportable diseases is that the CDC would usually use a state health department’s determination as the final say. The new CDC Director is failing us.

The CDC left two measles-associated Pa. deaths out of its latest count after RFK Jr. sparred with Gov. Shapiro

HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. has accused Pennsylvania of not cooperating with the CDC in its handling of a measles outbreak.

inquirer.com

New York, here’s how you can save a life: 1. Go to nyc.gov/naloxone to get free overdose-reversal medication, also known as Narcan®. 2. If you or someone you love is struggling with substance use, call 988 for confidential recovery resources.

“As it is, many American communities, regardless of politics, have embraced bike-friendly policies… There are now 4,400 directional miles of protected bike lanes today, up from 108 directional miles in 2000, according to PeopleForBikes, an industry trade association and advocacy group.”

Do D.E.I. Bike Paths Exist? The Trump Administration Says Yes.

The administration has revoked funding for bike paths, and encouraged removing some. A cycling advocate said it is playing on the idea of “that dork on a bike.”

nytimes.com

An NPR investigation found that people in the U.S. are dying from heat much more often than official counts show. We explore the reasons why — and how lives can be saved. n.pr/4hZ8XID

NPR spent 2 years tracking deaths from heat. We found a staggering hidden toll

An NPR investigation found that people in the U.S. are dying from heat much more often than official counts show. We explore the reasons why — and how lives can be saved.

n.pr

so according to the CDC, *foodborne illness* is responsible for about 930 deaths a year. "food-induced illness" is a made up term RFK is using for basically every cause of mortality minus suicide.

Aaron Rupar@atrupar.com · last wk.

RFK Jr defends measles: "In 10 years, there have been 3 measles deaths in America. There are now about 1.2 million deaths every year from food-induced illness. The media and certain demagogic politicians are constantly trying to scare us about infectious disease."

reskeeting with alt text bc this is a funny as hell way to dismiss someone's dumbass argument to their face

Matt Darling@besttrousers.bsky.social · last wk.

In which @jamellebouie.net reveals the Secret Sauce of his punditry. www.nytimes.com/2026/08/22/o...

The horse-riding librarians of the Pack Horse Library Project in Hindman, Kentucky, around 1940. This was a genuine New Deal initiative established by President Franklin D. Roosevelt's Works Progress Administration (WPA) during the Great Depression.

I wrote about a group of Black dads who are building community by meeting up for yoga, and a instructor who randomly drives up to people on the street for on the spot yoga sessions

These Black Men Are Forging Meaningful Bonds Through Yoga

A yoga session for Black dads takes place on Saturdays at the Barack Obama Presidential Center.

huffpost.com

"It is difficult to avoid the conclusion that the HHS secretary sees deaths from outbreaks of diseases we had beaten or contained, like measles and cyclosporiasis, as a form of social hygiene that kills off the weak and susceptible."

RFK Jr.’s Toxic World

The HHS secretary uses fear of contamination to denigrate modern medicine and advance a project rooted in vulgar eugenics.

lnk.thebulwark.com

thank you the new yorker and françoise for having me do this cover for the late, great dolly parton

NSF Graduate Research Fellowships Expected to Fall Next Year www.aip.org/fyi/nsf-grad... "Instead, what happens? Everyone is waiting for the solicitation to come out, and then everyone is shocked when there are these changes, and we don’t know how they came about.”

NSF Graduate Research Fellowships Expected to Fall Next Year

The program solicitation estimates a sharp decline in awards for 2027 despite recent signals of support from the White House.

aip.org

Wake up, babe. The Prime Minister just dropped “hydronym”.